Description:
Bowfront chest of drawers in re-mahoganized cherry made by William Lloyd (1779-1845) of Springfield, Massachusetts, the son of John Jr. and Marianna Wright Lloyd of Springfield. The interior of the back of the top drawer is inscribed in graphite: "William Lloyd Springfield 1801" and the interior of the back of the second drawer also in graphite: "William Lloyd Springd" The bureau is significant because it is currently the earliest documented example of the craftsmanship of William Lloyd, made when he was 22 yrs. Probably early nineteenth-century Springfield's most successful cabinetmaker, Lloyd's early training is still a mystery, but he was in business by 1802; the range of quality in design and technology demonstrates that he operated an urban shop which employed several itinerant journeymen and apprentices before he closed around 1820. He produced a wide variety of forms in the Federal style, several of which are in this collection, including elegant clock cases (53.092.1 and 2015.17), bookcases, desks (1998.31), sideboards (1998.32), bureaus (96.031), dining tables, and card tables (probably 0423). Other examples are owned by the Connecticut Valley Historical Museum and Old Sturbridge Village. Earlier furniture is better made than the later examples that rely heavily on numerous glue blocks for their rigidity. Some chests of drawers with his 1811 label are joined rather than dovetailed; the carcasses lack bottoms in the manner of seventeenth-century furniture. This chest, a hybrid of Georgian and Neoclassical tastes with a molded top and ogee brackets balanced by flaring French feet and inlaid quarter fans on the drawers, is among the earliest piece of documented western Massachusetts furniture to incorporated neoclassical taste (see 1799 Daniel Clay tall clock case, 69.0265, and 1799 Erastus Grant chest of drawers, 86.080). The chest has reproduction brasses.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+96.031 |
